The Other Other Woman (51 page)

When I got upstairs, Brooke was surprised to see me so soon. I assured her that everything was fine, but we were definitely over and I just wanted to go to bed.

The next morning, she still had some classes she was supposed to attend and I needed some coffee. Of course, as I was walking down the main hall, Matt was coming up from the opposite direction with another broker. I hadn’t expected to see him again. He came right up and cheerfully grabbed me in the middle of the hallway, giving me a big over-exaggerated hug and planting a kiss on my cheek. I told him I was looking for coffee and he showed me where to find it. He had decided to skip the rest of the meetings and was going to hit the road early with the weather being so iffy. I immediately suspected that he told his wife he would be staying the entire time but was now heading back to Atlanta early to spend the afternoon with… her. I didn’t trust a single word that came out of his mouth anymore, which was really hard for me to face, since he was someone I would have trusted with my life.

Once we were alone, his manner changed. He seemed rather heavy-hearted all of the sudden, which I could not understand. He was the reason for all of this. He could have changed his mind at any single point and I would have come running. I would have loved him until he was dead. I would have completely forgiven him, just to stay with him, even if I knew I would never be able to trust him again. I would have stayed and given up everything that makes me who I am: my cynicism, my common sense, and basic human intelligence, and found excuses to believe him because I still felt like I needed him that much.

He slowly walked me back to the elevator, and with another warm hug, this one far longer and more intimate than I expected, we said goodbye. It all started and ended here, almost a year to the day, the first and last time I would ever lay my eyes on him.

I went upstairs and packed up all of my stuff and texted him on my way out.

I’ve run into Judy Decker twice this morning and both times she gave me the stink eye.

Her natural look.

That did make me giggle a little.
Okay I won’t worry then
.
Have a good trip home, Matt. Think Brooke and those guys are skipping out early too.

In the coming weeks, I tried really hard to remain friends with him. I imagine most people would question my sanity for ever speaking to him again, but I suppose I needed to wean myself off of him slowly. I couldn’t resolve my feelings for him because I still never understood what happened or what, if anything, I ever meant to him. There was no closure. I still loved him as much as I hated him. Or at least I loved what we used to have, what I thought we had.

He tried too. We still had to exchange work emails, of course, but he tried to call and text me a few times and I did the same to him. We kept everything very light. “How was your Superbowl Sunday, Mal?” “Great, Matt, how was yours?” We only talked to each other every couple of weeks, such a drastic change from the four to five conversations a day we used to have.

One fine day, I was sitting at my desk at work, trying and, as usual, failing to concentrate on anything other than him. My supervisor, Miranda, came up to my slightly closed door, knocked softly and came in, shutting it behind her. She stood there without saying a word, just staring at me. I took one look at her teary eyes and knew immediately what was about to come out of her mouth. I even braced for it.

“So… I just got a phone call. Just how long have you been sleeping with Matt Wynne?”

Fuuuuuck. My heart dropped into my stomach and my entire career just flashed before my eyes. I couldn’t help but start tearing up. I wasn’t some kind of cheap whore, and I could just imagine what rumors must now be flying around. Who knew and how did they know and, worse, does he know that they know that she knows? OH NO.

I suddenly wished I was better at lying, but her expression told me there was no way the guilt wasn’t written all over my face. “Who told you?” I asked.

“How long this been going on?”

“Look, I’ll tell you everything, but I need to know who told you. Is this something that’s all over the place now?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Can you just tell me who told you? I just want to know who knows. You know me, Miranda. It’s not what you think.” Tears started pouring down my face. “It’s so… so much worse than that.”

She softened immediately. “I don’t think I can tell you… I have to ask the person who told me, first. What the hell happened?”

“Nothing is going on now. It’s over. But he wasn’t just some sales meeting hook-up if that’s what you were told. I still love him. I left Nate last year because of him. I’m not some kind of dirty homewrecker. He wrecked
my
home!”

“OH MY GOD! Are you serious!?”

“Yeah, I thought he loved me too, or at least he ‘cared so much’ about me. He made it seem like he wanted out of his marriage too. But he lies. He wants to keep his wife and keep a few girlfriends on the side, too.”

“Oh! Like that
Katya
girl?!”

I looked at her, stunned.

“Yeeeah.”

“Well, Mallory, didn’t you see all those emails? How did you not know he had something going on with her?!”

“I did, eventually. But remember, I didn’t review their emails right away. You were still doing that part because you didn’t want to overwhelm me once I took on the new set of branches. By the time I took emails over, they had broken up, I think. So all they talked about was her getting a job.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot how long I did those…” she agreed. “How did this happen? How did it even start?”

“Tell me how you found out first!”

“I can’t. Not right now. But I’ll ask, and I promise if I can tell you, I will. I really don’t think this is like a companywide rumor or anything like you are thinking.”

She sat down across from me and I told her the entire story–how we met and how I fell so hard for him, how Brooke had caught us, how Nate found out, how I showed up in the parking lot at Katya’s apartment building. Everything.

“What a dirtbag. You know, I always thought he was one of the good ones, adopting that poor kid and helping those orphans. But then I knew he couldn’t be that great when I saw what was going on with that young girl.”

“Well, you could have maybe filled me in there, chickie…” I teased her through my tears. We both kind of snickered. I asked carefully, “So, am I in trouble, here?”

“I don’t know. No, I don’t think so. I mean, it’s not good, but I don’t think it’s anything you can be fired for or anything like that. All you did was fall for a married man.”

“Yeah, I know, but the branch stuff, I mean. You know I would have never, ever given him any sort of preferential treatment, right? All he ever buys are corporate bonds anyway, but I was very careful to treat him like everyone else if not worse!”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that. Although we should switch you out of that branch so you don’t have to talk to him anymore.”

“No… that’s been okay, though. Really. I love that branch and Matt and I are trying to be friends now anyway. I still talk to him once in a while.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“No, it’s probably not. I don’t know. I’m still having a hard time letting it go. In spite of everything, I still love him. I would take him back in a second. But there’s nothing I can do about it. He’s going to be moving anyway, so it’ll be a non-issue soon enough.”

“I’m so sorry he did this to you. I had no idea.”

“Yeah,” I started up again. “Me too.”

As soon as she was out of my office, I commenced freaking the fuck out. I called Brooke right away and told her what Miranda said.

“SAY WHAT?!?”

“Yeah, she didn’t tell me who told her or if Robin knows, but I feel like it’s got to be Robin, right? Who else is going to make a phone call like that? I can’t think of one person I know of who hates me so much that they would call my boss and tattle on me like that. But she and Robin would definitely talk about that.”

“Holy shit. Did you tell him!?”

“Hell no. I’m not saying anything to him. He would flip out! You remember how he acted when he found out about you, don’t ya?”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Miranda says she’s going to talk to her ‘source’ and will let me know if she can tell me where it came from. It’s got to be Robin. She said it wasn’t someone trying to spread anything. But I don’t know how Robin would have found out either! This is not good.”

“They can’t do anything to you, can they?”

“No, even if they could fire me, I don’t think they would. It’s not like my job performance sucks, and they like me, you know? I can’t help it that he turned out to be this way. If he had left his wife and we were just dating, there would be no issue at all. We have people who are married and work together here. I just think they are worried more about the drama factor.”

“Yeah, okay, that’s good. Wow. Well, let me know what she says.”

A little while later, Brooke called me back.

“Hey, girl. I need to tell you something. I think I may know what happened,” she said, and added apologetically, “and I think it may have been my fault.”

My heart began racing. I had sort of suspected Brooke as soon as Miranda came in my office. Not in a bad way. I knew she wouldn’t intentionally hurt me, but we were the only three in the company who knew, and Matt sure as hell wasn’t talking about it. I didn’t think anyone had seen me sprinting down his hallway in my heels either. Someone may have suspected some impropriety from the way we acted around each other but certainly not enough to be calling up people’s bosses.

“Awww crap, what did you do?!”

“Well, you remember how I was really, really, drunk that Thursday night after dinner?”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”

“I found out later I was talking to people that I don’t even remember seeing at all. Like I thought I lost my coat, but I actually asked Mark Bledsoe to hold it for me. Stuff like that, stuff I don’t even remember happening. I know I was talking to Elena Cook in the bathroom trashing Matt but I don’t remember what I said and now I’m afraid I might have accidentally said something to her about you.”

“LIKE WHAT?”

“I’m waiting for her to call me back to tell me!”

“Aw shit, Brooke, she’s Robin’s best friend. You know she told her if you did!”

“I know. I’m so sorry! I don’t even know what to say!”

“Well at least Elena likes me and probably isn’t going to spread that to anyone else, but she knows Robin is my BOSS!” I replied.

“Oooh! Here’s Elena calling, I’ll holler right back at ya!”

Well, I’ll be damned, ratted out by my best friend.

As the day went on, I was able to follow the chain of gossip pretty clearly. Brooke told Elena, Elena told Robin, Robin told Miranda, and Miranda told me. None of them were the type to spread company rumors around, I hoped anyway. But it looked like I had some ‘splainin’ to do to my boss. Miranda let me know that she had filled her in on the gist of it, you know, just so no one thought I was a no-good home-wrecking tramp.

When Brooke called back, she confirmed that she was the one with the loose lips. “Oh my God, I just can’t believe I did this. I’m so sorry, Mal, I really, really am. I don’t know how you will ever forgive me, but I am so sorry!”

“Tell me exactly what you said…”

“Well, I was going off about him splitting us up and deserting me and how he dicked me around with my pay stuff for so long, and then she said I said ‘and then he broke my best friend’s heart!’ and she was like ‘WHAT?!’ ‘He broke my best friend’s heart, Elena!’ and she goes, ‘What the hell are you talking about!?’ and I yelled ‘MALLORY!!’”

“Ooof. Okay. Well…” I replied, breathing a small sigh of relief, “I guess it’s good that you didn’t make it sound like I was just screwing around with him. And it sounds like it’s just us who know, so if I soothe things over with Robin, I think it will be okay. You are still tight with Elena, right?”

“Yeah, she is definitely not saying anything to anyone! Well… anyone else.”

I probably should have been madder. But I knew it was an accident. And by that point I was kind of tired of keeping secrets anyway. I wasn’t as worried about losing my job as I had been earlier that day, but I was worried that Robin was going to physically kick my ass for being so stupid. I figured I’d better call her and come clean.

“Well, hello,” she said, sounding way more serious than the animated voice I usually got.

“Baby, you mad?!” I said timidly. It was nice being able to joke like that with your boss.

“Naw, I ain’t mad at ya. But I definitely wasn’t expecting anything like that out of you! Almost knocked me right off my damn barstool!”

“Join the club! I don’t even know how I got into this jacked up situation!” I exclaimed. “Well, I mean, I know how. I just never expected it to turn out this way. For him to turn out this way…”

“I just can’t believe what an asshole he is. I mean, he had me completely fooled. I really thought he was one of the good ones. He was totally one of my favorites,” she said.

“How do you think I feel?”

“He’s not going to get away with it, Mallory. People like him, they always get caught. His wife will find out what he’s up to one day and that woman’s gonna take him to the friggin’ cleaners.”

“I don’t even care about that. I’m more upset about losing him than any of that. Now I just miss him, or at least who I thought he was. But I guess it was just a character he played.” My voice vibrated in my throat, barely able to get that out.

“Aww, honey, but he’s just a cheating bastard. You don’t need someone like him.”

“Yeah, I know that. But it doesn’t make it any easier.”

“We need to get you out of that branch.”

“No, it’s okay. It’s fine.”

“You shouldn’t have to talk to him anymore! Ever.”

“We only talk once in a while, but otherwise I can email him. We’re not on bad terms. It’s fine. Really.”

“Are you sure? Don’t you just want him to go away?”

“Honestly, I’m not ready for that just yet.”